Hello reader or reviewer (hopefully Lisa! ) I have been stewing over this question for months, I currently am running a desktop I built myself, its a Intel Core 2 Duo 32-bit with 4GB of RAM, 1 TB Hard Drive, and a Nvidia 9800GT Graphics card, unsure if there are any other specs you need but....I also own a Lenovo ThinkPad, the first generation from 2011. I am looking to replace these both and the convertible market was just what I was looking for, mostly because I like the size, because if I truly needed a bigger screen there are hookups, I dislike laptops because if you want to do literally anything on the go you have to open them up and sit them somewhere and when on a packed bus or walking around that is a horrible thing to do. I work full time as a IT Support Associate so I need the Windows 8 Pro version, I also go to college as a full time student as well, so I would enjoy the capability to work on everything I need, but...again im trying to replace my 4+ years old gaming rig, I suspect that the i7 at over 3.0GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB HD (space doesn't matter since I would run big games off a 3TB USB 3.0 external HD) would run better then my current setup and be simpler to use then all and portable everywhere! I play games like the Dead Space Trilogy, or Company of Heroes, Dungeon Siege, Total War Series, Geneforge Series, Caesar 3, Dungeon Keeper 2, Obilivion, Skyrim, SimCity, Need for Speed Series, Planet Side 2, Terraria, Minecraft, Supreme Commander Sets...I believe thats a good small list of a few of the games I want to play on this new device.

So after all the background information my true question is will the Dell XPS12 replace my 4+ year old gaming rig almost completely? If not could you recommend a portable machine with touchscreen that could compete for my needs and enjoyment?

Thank You very much for reading and I apologize for the length of the message but it is an expensive and very big deal for me.

For most tasks, the Dell XPS 12 will feel faster than your existing machines. But it has Intel HD 4000 graphics and no dedicated graphics, so it's not really a gaming machine. You'd have to go with low settings and 1366 x 768 resolution to get just 30 fps in several of the games you listed (particularly Skyrim and Need for Speed newer titles).

12.5-13.3" Ultrabooks rarely have dedicated graphics, and if they do (like the Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD), they're fairly low end. You'd have to look at a larger laptop like the 15.6" Samsung Series 7 Chronos to get a touch screen and decent midrange dedicated graphics for gaming.

The ThinkPad Twist rotating display mechanism has been around for a decade now, and it's tried and true. It is however bulky by today's standards (the mechanism, not the Twist), so manufacturers are now moving away from it given the drive to make wafer thin portables. It works well and is robust. I'm actually sad to see it go.

With the Dell you get SSD drives, while that's an upgrade option for the Twist, which explains some of the price difference. The rest is the full HD display on the Dell XPS 12 vs. the 1366 x 768 resolution on the Twist. With both equipped with SSD drives and the same Core i5 CPU, you'll see very similar performance. They're running in nearly identical hardware inside.